Potential and Tension: The Architecture of Coherence: 1 What Makes the Structuring of Potential Possible?

Structured potential is often treated as a given: systems have it, and somehow it enables action, change, or creativity. But this assumption masks a subtle paradox. Nothing possesses potential in isolation; potential is always relational, contingent, and patterned. The structured potential of a system emerges from the relations among its components, its history of instantiation, and the constraints imposed by its environment. In other words, potential is never “free”—it is always structured.

Relational Foundations of Potential

At its core, structured potential is a patterned space of possibilities: it defines what a system can do, without yet dictating what it will do. This space arises from three intertwined relational conditions:

1. Residual constraints from past instantiations — previous events or configurations leave traces that shape future possibilities.

2. Relational embedding — a system is always positioned within networks of other systems; these relations delimit and orient its potential.

3. Scale-sensitivity — the structuring of potential unfolds differently at micro, meso, and macro scales.

For instance, consider language from an SFL perspective. The potential for meaning-making is not arbitrary, but arises from the structured relations among field, tenor, and mode, realised through semantics. The lexicogrammar, with its system networks, encodes constraints: it provides the structured potential for certain meanings to be instantiated while excluding others. A social interaction — say, a classroom discussion — carries the potential to produce argumentation, consensus, or negotiation precisely because of the constraints encoded in register and semantic patterns, not because anything is possible.

Mechanics of Structuring Potential

Structured potential is made possible through mechanisms that order possibilities without fully determining them:

• Differentiation of elements: system components must be distinct enough to relate in varied ways. In SFL terms, choices across field, tenor, and mode must be sufficiently differentiated to allow nuanced semantic construal.

• Relational constraints: systemic rules, social norms, and feedback loops constrain how elements can combine. In language, this is realised in system networks: the selection of mood, modality, and thematic structure guides meaning-making.

• Nested temporalities: potential is realised across scales. In discourse, clauses instantiate local potential; sequences of interactions instantiate meso-scale potential; genres and institutions shape macro-scale potential.

The crucial point is that structured potential prefigures instantiation without enforcing it. It establishes the contours of what can happen, but the system must still navigate these contours.

Structured Potential Across Domains

The conditions for structuring potential manifest in diverse domains:

• Biology: Metabolic cycles, feedback loops, and regulatory networks create structured potential for growth, adaptation, and response.

• Social formations: Institutional rules, social norms, and roles create structured potential for negotiation, collaboration, and conflict.

• Symbolic systems: Language (as above), visual design conventions, or ritual structures encode potential for novel expression, constrained by system patterns.

Across all domains, potential is emergent, relational, and scale-relative. The same underlying principle governs molecules, social rituals, and semantic patterns: structured potential exists only because the system has internal differentiation, relational constraints, and nesting across temporal or functional scales.

Implications

Structured potential is not passive; it actively shapes what systems can do. It sets the stage for tension, coherence, and transformation. Without understanding the conditions that make structured potential possible, we risk treating systems as if they float freely in possibility—an illusion that obscures the relational dynamics that genuinely enable action and meaning-making.

This post has traced the conditions for the structuring of potential. In the next post, we will explore the converse question: what does the structuring of potential make possible? How does potential, once structured, shape instantiation, generativity, and the emergence of coherence across scales?